If you want students to work on a project together, give them an area to work in together. Forums, wikis, and databases are ideal activities for group work. Don't forget to tell your students about the required group work. Let them know about the activities they can use to get them started.

Create groups

You can create your own groups or allow Blackboard Open LMS to create groups for you. From the Groups page select Auto-create groups or Create group.

Auto-create groups: If you choose to auto-create groups, Blackboard Open LMS names the groups for you. Enter the number of group members you want in each group in Group/member count and select Submit. Students are randomly assigned to the groups for you.

Create group: If you choose to create your own groups, type a name for each group and select Save changes. Optionally, you can add a description of the group and an image to represent the group. Next, you assign students to the groups.

You can also type an Enrollment key. An enrollment key gives access to the course. Only those who know the key can enroll. If you type an Enrollment key in the group page, participants join this group when they use the key to enroll.

Assign members to groups

After you create groups, assign members to them. Select a group and select Add/Remove users.

Select the users you want to put in the group. If your list is long, you can search for a specific user. Enter a name in the Search field. Select the user.

There is a number in parenthesis by each users name. This tells you how many groups the user is already in. If it is "0", they are not in any groups.

Select Add.

After adding all members, select Back to groups.

For a quick snapshot of what groups students are in, select the Overview tab. Overview shows a list of all groups and group members in one place.

If any students join your course after creating the groups, don't forget to add them to a group. You don't need to do anything if students leave your course. They leave the group when they leave the course.

How do my students know who is in their group?

Students may not know they are in a group if you don't tell them. It is good practice to tell your students the following:

The group they are in

The group members

The activities and resources for their group

In Snap, students can see who is in their group from the Participants page in Course Dashboard.

If you are using another theme, you must add the People block to your course. This makes the Participants page available to your students. To learn more, see Blocks.

Group modes

Before creating group activities it is important to understand group modes. Group modes determine the groups that can view and submit to a particular activity. In most activities group mode does not change how the activity functions. There are some exceptions mentioned in the following list.

Separate groups: Each group member can only see and work in their own group. Other groups are invisible.

Open forums: Students can only see and reply to their group.

Assignments: Students can only see their own submission and group name. If you want students to see submissions by everyone in their group, see Group assignment.

Chat: Students can only see and chat with their group.

Wiki: Students can only see and work in their group wiki.

Visible groups: Each group member works in their own group. They can see other groups but can't work in them.

Open forums: Students can see all group forums. They can only reply to their group.

Assignments: Students can only see their own submission and group names. If you want students to see submissions by everyone in their group, see Group assignment.

Chat: Students can see all group chats. They can only chat with their group.

Wiki: Students can see all group wikis. They can only work in their group wiki.

No groups: There are no groups.

As a teacher, you see all student work no matter what the group mode setting is.

Create group assignments using the assignment Group submission settings.

Set up activities for students to collaborate in when working on their group assignment. For example, Chat and Open forum.

Students submit in groups: Select Yes. Students are assigned groups based on the default set of groups or the groups you created. A group submission is shared among group members. All group members see each others changes to the submission.

Require group to make submission: If you select Yes, students must be in a group to make a submission.

Require all group members submit: This is off by default. When off the group assignment is complete as soon as any one member of the group selects Submit. Select Yes to make all group members select Submit before the assignment is complete.

Once a submission has been made on an assignment, the Group submission settings cannot be changed.